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Jupiter
Overview Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and the largest of the Solar System, as well as the planet with the most moons. Viewed from Earth, Jupiter can reach an apparent magnitude of nearly -3m, making it the third brightest object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus. It has been considered a powerful deity for thousands of years in many mythologies due to its brightness, and modern-day explorations are proving that these ideas were more accurate than otherwise might have been assumed.This article has been adapted from the Space Engine ingame wiki Composition and Atmosphere As a gas giant, Jupiter has nothing that could be considered a 'surface' - its atmosphere simply transitions smoothly from gas to liquid to solid as it gets deeper. It's composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, with only small amounts of other elements. Numerous storms exist on its surface at any one time, notably the Great Red Spot, an anticyclonic storm the size of the Earth which has been active for at least three hundred years. Jupiter-Clouds-003.jpg|Artistic depicition of Jupiter's clouds. Painting by Adolf Schaller Jupiter-Clouds-002.jpg|Artistic depicition of Jupiter's clouds. "Shadow of Io" by sirgerg Jupiter-Clouds-001.jpg|Artistic depicition of Jupiter's clouds. "Jupiter" by justV23 Moons Jupiter's first four moons were discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610, and today are known as the 'Galilean' moons in his honor - of its total of 67 moons, the Galilean moons are the largest and most massive, making up 99.9997% of the total mass in orbit around Jupiter, and all except Europa are larger than the Earth's moon. The remaining 63 moons are very small by comparison, barely more than asteroids. The innermost Galilean moon, Io, is currently the only location in the solar system other than the Earth to exhibit active volcanism. Second is Europa, the smallest of the Galilean moons, covered in a shell of thick ice and theorized to possess an ocean of liquid water underneath this ice sheet. Third and Fourth are Ganymede and Callisto, respectively. Both are composed mostly of water ice, and may also hold subsurface oceans like Europa. Rings Like all gas giants in the solar system, Jupiter has rings. However, they are very tenuous and dark, being mostly composed of material ejected from Io's volcanoes, and the debris from meteoroid impacts on various moons. Orbit Jupiter occupies a typical circular orbit, with a semi-major axis of 5.2 AU, an inclination of 1.3°, and a low eccentricity value of 0.04. Exploration Jupiter wasn't explored directly until 1973, when Pioneer 10 conducted a flyby, returning the first images from beyond the orbit of Mars. Pioneer 10 was followed a few months later by Pioneer 11 (which later went on to explore Saturn). In 1979, the twin Voyager probes arrived. In 1992, the Ulysses probe used Jupiter's strong gravity to alter its trajectory, allowing it to pass over the poles of the Sun a few years later. In 1995, the Galileo spacecraft became the first to orbit Jupiter, and operated continuously until 2003, when it was intentionally crashed into the atmosphere to avoid any chance of the inactive spacecraft impacting (and contaminating) Europa. The Cassini spacecraft, en-route to Saturn, conducted a flyby in 2000, returning the highest resolution imagery of Jupiter to date. Finally, in 2007, the New Horizons spacecraft en-route to Pluto conducted a flyby of Jupiter, testing its instruments to help prepare for the Pluto encounter in 2015. Images Jupiter-001.jpg|Jupiter's Great Red Spot Jupiter-002.jpg|Jupiter's North Polar Region Jupiter-003.jpg|Jupiter's crescent Jupiter-004.jpg|Overview of Equatorial and Temperate Belts Jupiter-005.jpg|Jupiter's North Polar Region Jupiter-006.jpg|Close-up of the South Temperate Belt Jupiter-007.jpg|North Equatorial Belt and South Equatorial Belt Jupiter-008.jpg|Jupiter's North Equatorial Belt Jupiter-009.jpg|Jupiter seen from its moon Io Jupiter-010.jpg|Jupiter seen from its moon Ganymede Jupiter-011.jpg|Jupiter seen from its moon Europa Jupiter-012.jpg|Jupiter seen from its moon Callisto Category:Gas giants Category:Objects Category:Real objects